The Effect of Historical Narratives and Flag Type

This research will examine the effect of mainstream or marginalized historical narratives and the Confederate or American flag on temporal distancing, patriotism, perception of injustice, and assimilationist national identity. We expect that participants exposed to marginalized narratives will indicate higher perceived distance, especially when exposed to the Confederate flag. We expect that participants exposed to mainstream narratives will be highest on blind patriotism, especially when exposed to the American flag. We expect that participants in the American flag marginalized narrative condition would perceive the most racism and would reject more assimilationist conceptions of national identity. For the dependent measures of patriotism, perception of injustice, and national identity, we expect to find differences within the Confederate flag condition according to the meaning participants associate with the Confederate flag. These results will help us understand how people may respond to threatening narratives, how flag exposure may impact that response, and how historical narratives or flags can be presented to increase social justice awareness

Settling on the group's goals: An n-person argumentation game approach

Argumentation games have been proved to be a robust and flexible tool to resolve conflicts among agents. An agent can propose its explanation and its goal known as a claim, which can be refuted by other agents. The situation is more complicated when there are more than two agents playing the game. We propose a weighting mechanism for competing premises to tackle with conflicts from multiple agents in an n-person game. An agent can defend its proposal by giving a counter-argument to change the ``opinion'' of the majority of opposing agents. During the game, an agent can exploit the knowledge that other agents expose in order to promote and defend its main claim

Effects of Ethanol-Gasoline Blends on Exhaust and Noise Emissions from 4-Stroke S.I.Engine

Considering pollution problems and energy crisis today, investigations have been concentrated on lowering the concentration of toxic components in combustion products and decreasing fuel consumption by using renewable alternative fuels. In the present work, the effect of ethanol addition to gasoline on the exhaust emissions and noise level has been experimentally investigated at various engine loads. Results of the engine test indicated that using ethanol-gasoline blended fuels increases the power output of the engine dramatically (up to 50 %). While the CO and HC emissions decrease as a result of the leaning effect caused by the ethanol addition; and the CO2 emission increases because of the improvement of combustion. Also, it was noted that the noise level emission increases slightly with the increase of ethanol content. Finally, the results showed that ethanol can be used as a supplementary fuel to gasoline in modern spark ignition engines without major changes, and it can help to save our environment from toxic pollutants and to save a considerable part of the available oil

Urban Development of Bayn Al-Haramayn Zone Based on 25-Year Estimation of Al-Arbaeen Crowd Density

Karbala city is known to host one of the largest annual human gatherings in the world, where a diverse group of visitors congregates in the Karbala old city to participate in the Al-Arbaeen rites. This significant event peaked on Safar 19th, resulting in mobility issues, particularly in the Bayn Al-Haramayn zone. To address this concern, this study proposes a plan that estimates the number of visitors over the next 25 years and presents a solution for the vertical expansion of the zone while maintaining its urban fabric. The proposal includes estimating the areas required to accommodate the visitors based on an average crowd density of 3.5 individuals per square meter. The authors predict that the number of pilgrims will continue to increase over the next 25 years, and by 2046, an area of 148 square kilometers will be necessary to accommodate them. Expanding the Bayn Al-Haramayn zone is crucial as it is a vital destination for many visitors, and its spiritual significance adds value to the experience of performing the Ziyarat-Alarbaeen rituals. The proposed solution focuses on vertical expansion, providing a total area of 10, 116 m2 and can accommodate up to 35, 500 capita. Moreover, the proposed solution also integrates mobility paths that align with the urban scene of the area

Sequential bottlenecks drive viral evolution in early acute Hepatitis C virus infection

Hepatitis C is a pandemic human RNA virus, which commonly causes chronic infection and liver disease. The characterization of viral populations that successfully initiate infection, and also those that drive progression to chronicity is instrumental for understanding pathogenesis and vaccine design. A comprehensive and longitudinal analysis of the viral population was conducted in four subjects followed from very early acute infection to resolution of disease outcome. By means of next generation sequencing (NGS) and standard cloning/Sanger sequencing, genetic diversity and viral variants were quantified over the course of the infection at frequencies as low as 0.1%. Phylogenetic analysis of reassembled viral variants revealed acute infection was dominated by two sequential bottleneck events, irrespective of subsequent chronicity or clearance. The first bottleneck was associated with transmission, with one to two viral variants successfully establishing infection. The second occurred approximately 100 days post-infection, and was characterized by a decline in viral diversity. In the two subjects who developed chronic infection, this second bottleneck was followed by the emergence of a new viral population, which evolved from the founder variants via a selective sweep with fixation in a small number of mutated sites. The diversity at sites with non-synonymous mutation was higher in predicted cytotoxic T cell epitopes, suggesting immune-driven evolution. These results provide the first detailed analysis of early within-host evolution of HCV, indicating strong selective forces limit viral evolution in the acute phase of infection

Age at first birth in women is genetically associated with increased risk of schizophrenia

Prof. Paunio on PGC:n jäsenPrevious studies have shown an increased risk for mental health problems in children born to both younger and older parents compared to children of average-aged parents. We previously used a novel design to reveal a latent mechanism of genetic association between schizophrenia and age at first birth in women (AFB). Here, we use independent data from the UK Biobank (N = 38,892) to replicate the finding of an association between predicted genetic risk of schizophrenia and AFB in women, and to estimate the genetic correlation between schizophrenia and AFB in women stratified into younger and older groups. We find evidence for an association between predicted genetic risk of schizophrenia and AFB in women (P-value = 1.12E-05), and we show genetic heterogeneity between younger and older AFB groups (P-value = 3.45E-03). The genetic correlation between schizophrenia and AFB in the younger AFB group is -0.16 (SE = 0.04) while that between schizophrenia and AFB in the older AFB group is 0.14 (SE = 0.08). Our results suggest that early, and perhaps also late, age at first birth in women is associated with increased genetic risk for schizophrenia in the UK Biobank sample. These findings contribute new insights into factors contributing to the complex bio-social risk architecture underpinning the association between parental age and offspring mental health.Peer reviewe

Joint association of birth weight and physical activity/sedentary behavior with obesity in children ages 9-11 years from 12 countries

Objective: To examine the joint association of birth weight and physical activity/sedentary time with childhood obesity in 12 countries. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 5,088 children aged 9 to 11 years was conducted. Birth weight was recalled by parents or guardians. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary behavior were objectively measured using accelerometry. Results: The association of birth weight with the odds of obesity, central obesity, and high body fat was significant among children with either low MVPA or high sedentary time but not among children with either high MVPA or low sedentary time. In comparison with children with normal birth weight and high MVPA, children with high birth weight and low MVPA showed 4.48- to 5.18-fold higher odds of obesity, central obesity, and high body fat; children with normal birth weight and low MVPA showed 3.00- to 3.30-fold higher odds of obesity, central obesity, and high body fat, and children with high birth weight and high MVPA showed 1.16- to 1.68-fold higher odds of obesity, central obesity, and high body fat. Conclusions: High MVPA is more important than high birth weight as a correlate of obesity in children

Large-scale discovery of novel genetic causes of developmental disorders

Despite three decades of successful, predominantly phenotype-driven discovery of the genetic causes of monogenic disorders1, up to half of children with severe developmental disorders of probable genetic origin remain without a genetic diagnosis. Particularly challenging are those disorders rare enough to have eluded recognition as a discrete clinical entity, those with highly variable clinical manifestations, and those that are difficult to distinguish from other, very similar, disorders. Here we demonstrate the power of using an unbiased genotype-driven approach2 to identify subsets of patients with similar disorders. By studying 1,133 children with severe, undiagnosed developmental disorders, and their parents, using a combination of exome sequencing3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and array-based detection of chromosomal rearrangements, we discovered 12 novel genes associated with developmental disorders. These newly implicated genes increase by 10% (from 28% to 31%) the proportion of children that could be diagnosed. Clustering of missense mutations in six of these newly implicated genes suggests that normal development is being perturbed by an activating or dominant-negative mechanism. Our findings demonstrate the value of adopting a comprehensive strategy, both genome-wide and nationwide, to elucidate the underlying causes of rare genetic disorders